Explore the Era

Delve into the postwar Los Angeles art world in this online archive, which provides additional material related to the exhibitions on view at the Getty Center. Learn about hipsters and happenings, and the venues across the city where all the action took place through images from the archives and first-hand accounts with the artists.

From the Archive

These images depict De Wain Valentine’s work on his polyester resin Circle series. Valentine used industrial-scale molds to create the pieces, and carefully polished these works to achieve a reflective sheen. Valentine experimented in the 1960s and 1970s with creating such sculptures using liquid plastics that set and hardened into shape. The sculptures produced sculptures that shimmered, reflected light, and dematerialized the object so that the artwork appeared to merge with the physical space surrounding it.